Ragg, Lonsdale

RAFFLES, raf'elz, THOMAS: English Independent; b. at London May 17, 1788; d. at Liverpool Aug. 18, 1863. He studied at Homerton College, 1805-09; was pastor at Hammersmith, London, 1809-11; and at Liverpool, 1811-62. His ministry here was one of great usefulness and his position for a half a century a commanding one. He was one of the founders of Blackburn Academy for the education of Independent ministers, removed afterward to Manchester as the Lancashire Independent College. He published Memoirs of the Life and Ministry of Thomas Spencer (Liverpool, 1813; 7th ed., 1836); and Lectures on Practical Religion (1820). He contributed eight selections of his own to Hymns by W. B. Collyer (London, 1812), and arranged a Supplement to Dr. Watts's Psalms and Hymns (1853), including those and thirty-eight others, one of which was " High in yonder realms of light."

BIBLIOGRAPHY: T. S. Raffles, Memoirs of the Life and Ministry of . . . T. Raffles, London, 1864 (by his son); J. B.Brown, T. Raffles.... a Sketch, ib. 1863; S. W. Duffield , English Hymns, pp. 561-562, New York, 1886; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 948-949.

RAGG, LONSDALE: Church of England; b. at Wellington (10 m. e. of Shrewsbury), Shropshire, Oct. 23, 1866. He received his education at Christ Church, Oxford (B.A., 1889; M.A., 1892; B.D., 1905), and at Cuddesdon Theological College; was made deacon in 1890 and priest in 1891; curate of All Saints', Oxford, 1890; tutor and lecturer at Christ Church, 1891-95; vice-principal of Cuddesdon Theological College, 1895-98; warden of the Bishop's Hostel, Lincoln, and vice-chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, 1899-1903; winter chaplain at Bologna, 1904-05; British chaplain at Venice, 1905 sqq.; prebendary of Buckden in Lincoln Cathedral. He has edited II Samuel for Books of the Bible (London, 1898); and has written: Aspects of the Atonement. Atoning Sacrifice illustrated from various sacrificial Types of Old Testament, and from successive Stages of Christian Thought (1904); Christ and our Ideals; Message of the Fourth Gospel to our Day (1906); Dante and his Italy (1907); The Mohammedan Gospel of Barnabas (1907; jointly with Laura M. Ragg); The Church of the Apostles. Being an Outline of the History of the Church of the Apostolic Age (1909); and The Book of Books; a Study of the Bible (1910).

RAHAB, r�'hab: A Canaanitic woman of Jericho, who received the spies sent by Joshua. It is stated in Josh. ii. 1-21 that Rahab, a prostitute, received into her house in Jericho the two spies sent by Joshua to reconnoiter the enemy's country. When the messengers of the king of Jericho arrived at Rahab's house to arrest these spies, she first concealed them and then aided them to escape, asking as a reward that she and her family should be spared if Jericho fell into the hands of the Israelites: as a token of recognition she received a red thread to hang from her window. This promise was kept when Jericho was taken, and Rahab and her family were received into the community of Israel.

Not only did the Jews dislike to bring their ancestors into contact with a prostitute, but some Christian expositors have also taken pains to give the word zonah or its Greek equivalent porne, another explanation, although these words always signify prostitute. Josephus (Ant., V., i. 2, 7) describes Rahab as the hostess of an inn. Jewish tradition asserted that eight prophets were descended from her (J. Lightfoot, Hor� Hebraic�, on Matt. i. 5). She was said to have married either Joshua himself or else Salma, thus becoming the mother of Boaz and therefore an ancestor of David. The latter supposition seems to be accepted by the genealogy of Jesus in Matt. i. 2-19 (cf. I Chron. ii. 4 sqq.; Jerome, on Matt. i. 5). The author of the epistle to the Hebrews offers Rahab as an example of faith, and in James ii. 25 she illustrates the value of good works. Finally, Clement of Rome (1 Epist., i. 12) sees in the red cord a symbol of salvation by the blood of Christ.

(R. KITTEL.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Besides the commentaries on the passages cited in the text from the Old and New Testaments, and the works on Hebrew history cited under ARAB, and ISRAEL, HISTORY OF, consult: A. Wanache, Neue Beitr�ge zur Erl�uterung der Evangelium aus Talmud and Midrasch, pp. 3-4, G�ttingen, 1878; F. Weber, System der altsynagogalen pal�stinischen Theologie, p. 318, Leipsic, 1880; < id="iv.vii.xviii.p5.6">DB, iv. f93-194; EB, iv. 4007; JE, x. 309; Vigouroux, Dictionnaire, xxxiii. 934-936.